1. How we decide - Jonah Lehrer2. The Greatest Show on Earth - Richard Dawkins3. The Healing of America: A Global Quest for Better, Cheaper, and Fairer Health Care - T. R. Reid4. The Evolution of God - Robert Wright5. Why Evolution Is True - Jerry A. Coyne6. Rapt: Attention and the Focused Life - Winifred Gallager7. The Invention of Air - Steven Johnson8. Theo Gray's Mad Science: Experiments You Can Do At Home - But Probably Shouldn't - Theodore Gray9. The Philosophical Baby: What Children's Minds Tell Us About Truth, Love, and the Meaning of Life - Alison Gopnik10. Signature in the Cell: DNA and the Evidence for Intelligent Design - Stephen C. Meyer

Stephen Meyer has already made year-end lists with Signature in the Cell, an Amazon bestselling science book and one of Times Literary Supplement's books of the year for 2009, but the latest news go far beyond that: Stephen Meyer has been named World Magazine's "Daniel of the Year" for 2009:

This fall Meyer came out with a full account of what science has learned in recent decades: Signature in the Cell: DNA and the Evidence for Intelligent Design (Harper One, 2009) shows that the cell is incredibly complex and the code that directs its functions wonderfully designed. His argument undercuts macroevolution, the theory that one kind of animal over time evolves into a very different kind. Meyer thus garners media scorn for raining on this year's huge celebration of the birth of Charles Darwin 200 years ago and the publication of On the Origin of Species 150 years ago.

The cover story is what should become the essential profile of Meyer, following what World's Marvin Olasky describes as "the four-stage pattern that is common among intellectual Daniels: Questioning, discernment, courage, and perseverance."

Meyer says, "You ask how someone gets the moxie to take something like this on. Part of the answer is that I didn't know any better when I was young. I was just so seized with this idea and these questions: 'Was it possible to develop a scientific case? Were we looking at evidence that could revive and resuscitate the classical argument from design, which had been understood from the time of Hume and certainly the time of Darwin to be defunct?' If that was the case, that's a major scientific revolution." Courage becomes a determinant once we count the cost and see that it's great. Meyer's first inkling came when "talking about my ideas to people at Cambridge High Table settings, and getting that sudden social pall." But the cost was and is more than conversational ease: San Francisco State University in 1992 expelled a professor, Dean Kenyon, who espoused ID, and other job losses have come since. Meyer and other ID proponents saw "that this would be very controversial. One of the things that emboldened all of us who were in the early days of this movement was meeting each other. In 1993 we had a little private conference [with] 10 or 12 very sharp, mostly younger scientists going through top-of-the-world programs in their respective fields who were all skeptical. I think the congealing of this group gave everyone the sense that this was going to be an exciting adventure: Let's rumble."

Rumble, indeed — Meyer just returned from schooling Michael Shermer (listen to the audio here).

The article, as the title indicates, is a profile in courage worth reading, particularly this bit:

Many who enter the courage stage at first think that the war in which they find themselves will end in a few years. There comes a time in many lives, though, when a hard realization sinks in: It will not be over in my lifetime. That's when some give in while others proceed to the perseverance stage. That's where Meyer is: Signature in the Cell ends with a long list of testable predictions concerning the direction of science over the next several decades. Meyer predicts that further study will reveal the importance of "junk DNA" and the reasons for what seem to be "poorly designed" structures: They will reveal either a hidden functional logic or evidence of decay from originally good designs.

Signature in the Cell Named One of Top Books of the Year by Times Literary Supplement

Stephen Meyer’s Signature in the Cell: DNA and the Evidence for Intelligent Design is being named one of the top books of 2009 in the prestigious Times Literary Supplement (TLS) annual “Books of the Year” issue, officially due out later this week. The selection was made by prominent philosopher (and noted atheist) Thomas Nagel at New York University. The books issue is not online yet, but the TLS website has posted a preview of Nagel’s endorsement of the book:

Stephen C. Meyer’s Signature in the Cell: DNA and the evidence for Intelligent Design (HarperCollins) is a detailed account of the problem of how life came into existence from lifeless matter – something that had to happen before the process of biological evolution could begin. The controversy over Intelligent Design has so far focused mainly on whether the evolution of life since its beginnings can be explained entirely by natural selection and other non-purposive causes. Meyer takes up the prior question of how the immensely complex and exquisitely functional chemical structure of DNA, which cannot be explained by natural selection because it makes natural selection possible, could have originated without an intentional cause. He examines the history and present state of research on non-purposive chemical explanations of the origin of life, and argues that the available evidence offers no prospect of a credible naturalistic alternative to the hypothesis of an intentional cause. Meyer is a Christian, but atheists, and theists who believe God never intervenes in the natural world, will be instructed by his careful presentation of this fiendishly difficult problem.

Signature in the Cell was previously named one of the top ten best-selling science books of the year by Amazon.com.

Stephen Meyer says there are scientific reasons to doubt consensus about Darwin's theory

Meyer: Fossil record challenges idea that organisms evolved from a single ancestor

Meyer: There is compelling scientific evidence of actual intelligent design

While we officially celebrate the 150th anniversary of the publication of Charles Darwin's "On the Origin of Species" on November 24, celebrations of Darwin's legacy have actually been building in intensity for several years. Darwin is not just an important 19th century scientific thinker. Increasingly, he is a cultural icon.Darwin is the subject of adulation that teeters on the edge of hero worship, expressed in everything from scholarly seminars and lecture series to best-selling new atheist tracts like those by Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens. The atheists claim that Darwin disproved once and for all the argument for intelligent design from nature.And that of course is why he remains hugely controversial. A Zogby poll commissioned by the Discovery Institute this year found that 52 percent of Americans agree "the development of life was guided by intelligent design." Those who are not scientists may wonder if they have a right to entertain skepticism about Darwinian theory. We are told that a consensus of scientists supporting the theory means that Darwinian evolution is no longer subject to debate. But does it ever happen that a seemingly broad consensus of scientific expertise turns out to be wrong, generated by an ideologically motivated stampeding of opinion?Read the rest here.

With the 150th anniversary of Charles Darwin's The Origin of Species fast approaching, Dr. Meyer explains the holes in the theory of evolution and the magnificent ode to intelligent design. He discusses Darwin's legacy, the science community's reaction to intelligent design and more in this Q&A.

Today Amazon.com announced their bestselling books of 2009 and Signature in the Cell: DNA and the Evidence for Intelligent Design (HarperOne) by Dr. Stephen C. Meyer made the top ten in the science category. According to Amazon.com, books on its 2009 list of best sellers are “[r]anked according to customer orders through October. Only books published for the first time in 2009 are eligible.” The book's publisher, HarperOne, reports that the book is entering its fifth printing in as many months, and continues to sell strongly both online and in stores. “Here we are, celebrating the 150th anniversary of the publication of Origin of Species, a book mistakenly assumed to have killed the design argument in science,” said Robert Crowther, director of communications at Discovery Institute’s Center for Science and Culture, which is the intelligent design research program directed by Dr. Meyer. “Did Darwin refute the design argument? No. And here’s a book about the science of intelligent design that shows how the design argument is being revived with powerful new arguments relevant to our culture.”In Signature in the Cell Dr. Meyer shows that the digital code imbedded in DNA points powerfully to a designing intelligence and helps unravel a mystery that Darwin did not address: how did the very first life begin? He weaves together a journey of discovery with an argument for intelligent design and explains how intelligent design can be formulated as a rigorous scientific argument using the very same method of reasoning that Darwin used.

Following on the heels of his last bestseller, The God Delusion, Darwinian biologist and atheist Richard Dawkins has scored another publishing triumph. The No. 5 bestseller in the country, according to the New York Times, is Dawkins’s The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution. You might think his success would give him the courage to face critics of his ideas in open debate. But you would be wrong. As one of the architects of the theory of intelligent design, I have formally challenged Dawkins to debate our contrasting views of evolution before the public, but his representatives have responded in the negative, insisting that he does not debate “creationists.”Never mind that intelligent design is not creationism. Why does Dr. Dawkins refuse to debate? Maybe because some of the strongest evidence of intelligent design in living beings comes from the study of life’s origin itself, posing in turn an enigma that neither Charles Darwin nor Richard Dawkins ever claimed to be able to solve.Read the rest of this article here.

Robert Deyes has just posted the next installment in his detailed overview of Signature in the Cell, this a review of chapter eight, over at Uncommon Descent.

In the middle ages, Moses Maimonides debated heavily with Islamic philosophers over the Aristotlean interpretation of the universe. By looking at the stars and seeing their irregular pattern in the heavens, he concluded that only design could have generated the star arrangements he observed (1). In the process he ruled out necessity and the Epicurean ideology of chance. Centuries later Isaac Newton similarly opted for design as the best explanation for the origins of our solar system. Writing in his General Scholium for example Newton left us with no doubt over where his focus lay:

“This most beautiful system of sun, planets, and comets could only proceed from the counsel and dominion of an intelligent and powerful Being” (2).

Recently, on the Michael Medved show, arch-Darwinist Richard Dawkins, author of The Greatest Show on Earth, was asked point-blank by Discovery Institute President Bruce Chapman why he wouldn't debate Stephen Meyer, author of Signature in the Cell. His response? Weak sauce:

I have never come across any kind of creationism, whether you call it intelligent design or not, which has a serious scientific case to put.

The objection to having debates with people like that is that it gives them a kind of respectability. If a real scientist goes onto a debating platform with a creationist, it gives them a respectability, which I do not think your people have earned.

Hm. Did Professor Dawkins have these same scruples when he went up against John Lennox in 2007?

No matter — Professor Dawkins made his position clear enough: address young earth creationism, then tell your audience that you've destroyed intelligent design... which of course, even Richard Dawkins admits, is not the same thing as young earth creationism.Read the transcript of the entire exchange below — and note Bruce Chapman's great line about Expelled:

Dr. Meyer explains intelligent design to host Tavis Smiley and discusses how evolution should be taught in schools.

Debate With Peter Ward on The Dori Monson Show (KIRO)Audio MP3

Dr. Meyer lays out the case for intelligent design in this 50-minute debate with University of Washington professor Peter Ward.

Debate With Peter Ward at Talk of the Times (TVW)TVW

The rematch, a debate with Meyer and Ward addressing each other’s arguments for intelligent design and evolution (or not, respectively). Reporters and columnists especially should listen to this, as a real debate by scientists on the science of Darwinian evolution is almost as rare as life in the universe.

Ben Wattenberg moderates this matchup with Darwinist Michael Ruse, who was also featured in the movie Expelled. This debate gets into the philosophical implications of design and Darwinism and the distinctions between the scientific evidence and the implications for both theories.

Debate with Michael Shermer on Faith Under FireDr. Stephen Meyer on Faith Under Fire

Dr. Meyer addresses Michael Shermer’s objections to intelligent design, including “Who designed the designer?” Also features their discussion on the existence of design in nature.

The Michael Medved ShowAudio MP3

Dr. Meyer discusses the information revolution and the challenge it presents for Darwinism with Michael Medved, expounding the argument for intelligent design from information.

The Jan Mickelson ShowAudio MP3

Even arch-atheist Richard Dawkins anticipated the title of Dr. Meyer’s new book, as Meyer discusses with host Jan Mickelson.

Stephen Meyer and Signature in the Cell on CBN Newswatch video here

Video of CNS interview with Dr. Meyer about Signature in the Cellwatch video here

Public Appearances

The Science of Intelligent DesignWatermark conference, April 2009

The Science of Intelligent Design

Dr. Meyer explains how the positive case for intelligent design is based on scientific reasoning.

DNA Enigma: Where Did the Information Come From?Watermark conference, April 2009

DNA Enigma: Where Did The Information Come From?

Dr. Meyer explains the importance of the mystery of where the information in DNA came from.

DNA Enigma: Where Did the Information Come From?Watermark conference, April 2009

How Dr. Meyer Became Interested in the DNA Enigma

Dr. Meyer shares the story of how he became involved in the argument for design in the origin of life.